Benzotriazoles, for example, compounds such as benzotriazole or 5-methylbenzotriazole, etc., have been widely used as antifogging agents for silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials. However, antifogging agents of this kind have properties which allow them to easily diffuse and move between the constituent layers of the photographic light-sensitive materials and easily dissolve in treating solutions. This may take place because their adsorptive power with respect to silver halide is considerably inferior to that of mercapto compounds such as 1-phenyl-5-mercaptotetrazole, etc. Accordingly, it is difficult to prevent fogging of only the specific layer in the photographic light-sensitive material with antifogging agents of this kind. Further, they diffuse more or less into other constituent layers and influence the photographic properties of such layers (for example, reduction of sensitivity). In addition, when they are dissolved and accumulate in the treating solutions, the development becomes difficult to control because they delay the progress of development of the photographic light-sensitive materials to be treated thereafter. Further, they often reduce the spectral sensitivity of the photographic light-sensitive materials when a large amount of such antifogging agents are used for the photographic light-sensitive materials which are to be spectrally sensitized with dyes.
Accordingly, there has been a need to develop benzotriazole antifogging agents without the above faults.
According to the present invention, novel photographic light-sensitive materials which satisfy the above-described requirements can be obtained by providing high polymers of benzotriazoles.
Attempts have been made at producing high polymers of compounds which are known as stabilizers or antifogging agents for silver halide photographic light-sensitive materials. For example, high molecular compounds containing a repeated residual of tetrazoles, thiazoles or imidazoles have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,576,638, 3,598,599 and 3,598,600. However, the antifogging effect of such compounds as a whole is low, because the residue bonds to the polymer chain through a functional group (for example, mercapto group) which is believed to have the most important influence upon the antifogging function. Further, high molecular compounds having 1-phenyl-5-mercaptotetrazoles which bond to the polymer chain through another group except the mercapto group have been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,768. However, these compounds are not used as a stabilizer or an antifogging agent but are only used as a silver ion scavenger by adding to an intermediate layer for a diffusion transfer process.
Anyhow, antifogging agents which are high polymers of benzotriazoles widely used as the antifogging agent have not been known at all.